Different Nations, Similar Hearts
by zinichi uzumaki
Summary: Aang starts to realize that although nations are different, hearts are similar, and most are weather worn from the growing war. And way too many fires are being fed under the close watch of Admiral Zhao. Can Kereth and Feathra help?
1. Chapter 1

_**Book 1:**_

_**Never Again**_

_**Zinichi's Note:** Hey everyone! Don't worry loyal Naruto fanfic fans, I will continue…as soon as I get an idea…for now, I'll just do the other fanfics I was planning on doing. Know what sucks? They don't have Marchen Awakens Romance on this site!!!!! Argh! I could just scream!!! (Wait…I already did…hmm.) I'm also mad at my friend because she erased ALL of her wonderfully beautiful stories. cough Drakara cough because some stupid flamer well, flamed her. (I flamed him back) extra note flamers beware, cyber dog end extra note Bum Bum Bum BUM! The first chapter of my Avatar fanfic takes the stage (for the first time)._

Aang gazed at the flickering camp fire with watering eyes, thinking back to the time when he was impatient with his fire bending teacher, and accidentally burned Katara, making her cry, and making Sokka angry with him. He was glad that Toph wasn't there at the time; he could have hurt her also. He was so deep in thought that he did not realize the rustling in the nearby bushes, however, Toph did. "Aang, shh, I can feel aggressive vibrations. Let's sneak up on them." Aang snapped out of his daydream.

"How many are there?"

"I'd say about one, or two. I can't really tell; I'm not fully awake yet."

"WHAT?!?!?!"

"Shh."

"Oh, right, but what if there are many more waiting?"

"I'm not so tired that I wouldn't feel an entire battalion waiting behind that bush."

"Sorry, let's go."

Both Aang and Toph made their way near the shivering bush. Toph was ready for ambush behind a boulder, and Aang's air bending was at the ready in the nearby sycamore tree. Aang gave the signal, and the bush was immediately surrounded by tall jagged rocks, a little bit of air bending lifted the entire area. When the air cleared, and the rocks returned to their earthy resting place, two girls were ready to fight. One had black hair, and an arrow cocked into a makeshift bow. The other girl had two rusty knives crossed into an "X" formation; her long dark brown hair flew behind her as she charged at Aang, now on the ground. "Why won't you leave our people alone? We have done nothing to you."

"What? I don't know who you or your people are! How could I hurt you?" Aang spoke between supple dodges, avoiding her knives as best he could; he had to admit he underestimated her when he saw the rusty knives. This girl hadn't just been given knives to play with.

"Ha! Don't make me laugh," The other girl began, sending off arrows left and right in Toph's direction. "Your people are all the same, taking before asking."

"AANG! A little help? It's not a ground attack; I can't see the arrows until the last second!"

"Switch me?"

"You got it!" Toph and Aang switched opponents; this was a bit more even. Toph could sense the steps of the girl with knives, and Aang's air bending worked better against arrows than wind cutting knives.

"Fine with me," Knife girl was speaking now, anger and hate dripped menacingly from her words. "I'll leave arrow boy to you Feathra, so I can have a shot at shorty here."

"Sounds good Kereth." Another arrow was cocked, and a knife was brandished. The one called Feathra found Ice growing around her hands and bow, and Kereth was flat on her stomach, suffering from a hit to the back that Sokka gladly delivered. Katara began covering Feathra's legs with solid ice. Feathra then received a stinging water whip that knocked her out, hanging limply over the ice that now covered her body from her feet to her waist.

Kereth was slowly waking up. She searched the dark surrounding her, looking for a familiar face. She felt a panging in the back of her head. Her hand flew to the source of the pain. Her eyes finally adjusted to find herself and comrade in the tent of their enemies. She reached for her knives resting in their sheath. They were not there. She flinched as she realized four pairs of curious eyes examining her. "Are you alright?" One with her hair in a braid spoke, looking sincere, but Kereth knew that this must have been an act.

"Who are you? What are you doing? Why did you attack Aang, and Toph?" This one poked her in the face with a boomerang with each pestering question. She would have knocked him out with one blow, if she had gained her wits about her. But unfortunately, she hadn't, so she had to compose herself and take the annoying words this hog-monkey threw at her.

"Sokka, I'm sure she didn't mean anything by it, it was dark, and she probably didn't realize who I am." The one with a blue arrow on his bald head spoke this time, earlier, the braid girl had called him Aang. She thought to herself.

_"If the bald one is called Aang, and the annoying twit is called Sokka, then the girl I attacked must be Toph, gathering from what the hog-monkey questioned me about. Hmm, they do not sound like water nation warrior names, they must simply be travelers,"_ She mentally shrugged this realization off. _"My bad…" _She then spoke. "I'm so sorry, I, and my friend Feathra mistook you for water nation warriors." She bowed, thinking that this was the best way to ask forgiveness. The one called Sokka puffed out his chest and fumed great stacks of steam from his ears, and nostrils.

"But I AM a water nation war…mmfm!" The braided girl had clamped her hand firmly across his mouth, rubbing her pulsing temples with her other hand.

"Why would you attack water nation warriors? What have they done to you?" Kereth saw that she was trying to be kind, but she heard a hint of anger in her voice.

"Six months ago, a warship painted with the marks of hunt, sailed into our town. Our people thought that they just came for more food and water, and we were happy to supply as much as we could for them. We did not have much, because we had recently been attacked by a troop of vigilantes that thought we had been sheltering a criminal. Luckily, they had raided a camp of fire nation warriors, so we had spare clothes to wear after our strongest men defeated the vigilantes. The water warriors saw us in the fire nation clothes, and did not waste time to realize that we were a beaten people, and meant no harm. They attacked our town, and left with all of our food, and few precious things. Ever since, the strong men have been training everyone with able body in our town, I have been in training ever since I was young, and my friend Feathra has been trained ever since she was able to walk. Our fathers are both a fraction of the strong men in our town, though they are few." She bit back tears; she hadn't expected to let out the entire story.

"So, that is why you attacked me and Toph." Aang spoke, now remembering how he had felt every time he had seen a beaten people. Kereth was now curious as to who she had attacked, Feathra was now waking up. She saw her comrade reach for her bow, as she had earlier reached for her knives.

"Feathra, they are not our enemies. But I do not yet know who they are." At this last sentence, she turned her head back to the four sitting in front of her, asking the question with her eyes.

"I'm Katara; this is my brother Sokka, our friend Toph, and our friend Aang, the Avatar." As Katara motioned to Aang, Kereth suddenly recognized him from wanted posters in nearby towns.

"You, you're the Avatar!" Feathra began pointing a shaky finger in Aang's direction. She immediately sat up straight, and bowed several times. "I am sorry for attacking you; please accept gifts of provisions from our town."

"Yes Feathra, that's a wonderful idea, would you all like to follow us to our town?" Kereth smiled at her friend. "But not tonight, it will be pitch black by the time we get to our town. We traveled a few miles beyond Birch River."

"Really? That far? Why don't you guys stay here for the night?" Katara was being kind as always.

"Sure!" Both spoke simultaneously. They were glad to stay with their new friends.

"Hold on a second! I don't want to share our tent with girls!" Sokka screamed out.

"So were not girls are we?" Katara and Toph sounded angered and hit Sokka upside his head. "You'll find at least two extra sleeping bags in the pack, I'm afraid they're not very nice though. They are our old ones after all." Katara paused long enough from punishing Sokka to say this.

"That's alright, as long as we get some sleep, we're fine!" Feathra seemed to like Katara very much.

"You know, Sokka reminds me of my elder brother Taroh. I think their egos would collide upon meeting though." Kereth stifled a giggle as Sokka yelled.

"Hey, I have no ego!" Feathra found the two tattered sleeping bags, and set them up beside Katara and Toph. Aang and Sokka slept on the other side.

"I don't think the wind was this warm before." Kereth noticed an unusually rhythmic wind blowing in the tent.

"Oh, that's Apah. Our flying bison. He's sleeping with Momo outside." Aang yawned. Kereth got out of her sleeping bag and peered outside, sure enough there was a humungous bison with the tail of a beaver-dog, or flying squirrel-dormouse curled around the tiny body of a bat-lemur.

"Wow…that's a big bison. Don't know how I could have missed that…Oh yeah; I was unconscious…that explains it…" Feathra joined her outside and stopped in her tracks when she saw Apah.

"Kereth, that's the thing that the admiral wanted captured and brought to him. What should we do?"

"Leave it be, it is obvious now that our dear admiral has misinformed us of the nature of these people. They mean no harm, so we will cause no harm."

"Alright, if you say so." Feathra shoke, but not from cold. She was envisioning the horrible face of their admiral, admiral Zhao.

"We should be getting back now."

"Yes." They walked back into the tent to find Katara, Toph, and Aang asleep. Sokka appeared asleep. Kereth assumed that the snoring coming from his body was a natural snore for a hog-monkey. But he was awake, wide awake, and he had heard all of Feathra's words.

**That was it! How did you all like it? Be honest, but if I hear anything about a "Mary Sue", it's a one way trip down the toilet for you. Hey, that rhymed! I personally think that I have been getting better in my writing skill. My next chapter might not be up for awhile, but be patient, and congratulate my muse intern for moving up to full fledged muse! Mya han han han! Aha! You all thought I didn't have a muse, but I did! Ha! I consider all of my muse interns "muses in training" so I do not let them out into public before being promoted to full fledged muse! (The others still have a long way to go, sigh) Anyways, I hoped you enjoyed it, does anyone know who Admiral Zhao is? I knew who he was, but I had to look up his name on the back of my "Book 1: Water, Volume 4 Avatar DVD" in order to find it. I had to double check, because he was Commander first. REVIEW ME NOW! PEOPLE! Thank you…**


	2. Chapter 2

**Book 2:**

**Kereth**

**A/N: **_I have done it! I have eaten twelve cookies, had a sugar rush, left drunken sounding messages on my friend's phone, ran around in panicky circles…and then passed out…imagine me with sake…scary…Anyways, I felt like I had to continue my next chapa of this so here it is. In this chapter you will find out some interesting things about Kereth! OW! My sugar high just ended and now I have a MASSIVE headache! PAIN! PAIN AND SUFFERING! AUTHOR IN PAIN! Please continue I'm fine…ow…_

The rising sun blared through the few holes of the tent. Kereth was the first to get up. She found her knives protruding from under Sokka's pillow. Apparently he still didn't trust her. They were now sheathed at her sides; perfectly happy to be home. Kereth had noticed that her tent mates did not have a large supply of food. It was her job as guest to supply new food for them; as was her village's code. While she searched for fish in the Keiko Stream, she thought of her village.

It was commonly called the Village of Tears. Most likely because a past Admiral had made a stupid mistake and used it as a Fire Nation army base; causing a large scale battle which destroyed the village and made them start anew. Kereth wasn't sure why it had earned that name because the village was quickly rebuilt. She caught a fish. The legend made sense on the other hand. She thought over the legend in her head as she traced the scales of the fish for disease. The people of her village had excellent hunting and survival skills.

She made her way to the front of the tent, having caught a dozen healthy fish. "Great; just great" Kereth said; exasperated as she looked at the grass. The grass was extremely wet, and so was the firewood. "How can I make a fire with this!?" Nothing would catch fire in this state, and fish were not very good raw.

Little did she know that while she was having this tantrum, a pair of fierce blue eyes were staring at her with mistrust. They could not be easily seen because this pair of eyes belonged to Sokka, and Sokka was a warrior; a person also familiar with certain skills. He made sure that no sounds were made, and that he only showed so much of his face through the holes in the tent. He watched her carefully as she stomped around, whisper-screaming at the pile of drenched wood. Sokka laughed in his head. He had woken up earlier than her, and drenched the campsite. He didn't trust her or her story…He thought…no…he believed that she just might be fire nation, and had to test if she was a fire bender as well.

Kereth stood still and breathed slowly, trying to make her breath one with the wind. Her tantrum eased and she lowered herself onto the ground, bringing her legs to a crossed position. "Think" She whispered, still aware that her friends were asleep in the tent. She lowered her left hand to her side. Sokka was panicking; he could only se what she was doing with her right hand, not the one she was using. She could very well be lighting the wood with a fireball, and he couldn't see! It was time to act and act now as the others were waking up.

Sokka stormed out of the tent yelling. "AHA!" He pointed an accusing finger at Kereth. A drowsy Katara poked her un-groomed head out of the tent.

"Aha what?" She spoke groggily. Sokka was just about to speak when Kereth spoke.

"Oh Sokka; you're awake!"

"You bet I'm awake, and you,"

"I need help starting this fire." She cut him off. He was about to say something else, then he saw what she was doing with her left hand. She presented a lump of wet grass in her palm. "The grass and the wood are damp."

"That's not a problem." Katara was more awake now and was pulling the moisture from the grass and wood into her water-skin flask. Sokka's accusing finger deflated as quickly as it was raised. "That's odd; I thought we had more water than that." At this statement, Sokka flinched. He had forgotten to return an equal amount of water to the pouch. Katara saw Sokka flinch. "Hey Sokka; can I talk to you for a second?" It was more of a command than a question.

"I can refill it for you Katara." Kereth was now off the ground, brushing damp grass off of her clothes.

"Thank you Kereth, this will only be a moment." She handed the flask to Kereth. As soon as Kereth was out of ear shot. Katara began the usual nagging routine. "You are such an annoying Hog-monkey!" "Why aren't you responsible?" "Do you even have a brain?" "Sometimes I think that I'm really the oldest." The nagging continued for a long time. Kereth was on her way back from the Keiko Stream, there were only a couple of trees between her and the nagging. She was well within earshot now. "And why did you dump our water on the fire wood?"

Kereth stopped in her tracks. She hid behind the thicker of the two trees. "So it was Sokka who did that. But why would he?" She whispered under her breath to herself. She thought of possible reasons, but she just couldn't find a reasonable one.

"Look Katara, I don't trust her." He whispered. Apparently Feathra was still asleep, and he didn't want to wake her. "Her story doesn't exactly sit right with me. I think she's fire nation." He pulled his sister closer and whispered even lower. "She might be a fire bending spy." Katara shoved him off.

"How could you say that? You heard her story; she's wearing those fire nation clothes because that's all they have! She was attacked unjustly and now you're going to accuse her of being our enemy? Sometimes I can't believe you Sokka." She stormed off, starting to prepare the fish Kereth had caught. Sokka slumped and went the opposite direction to work on the fire.

Kereth was breathing heavily. "How," She thought back to the conversation she had had last night with her companion Feathra.

_"Kereth, that's the thing that the admiral wanted captured and brought to him. What should we do?"_

_"Leave it be, it is obvious now that our dear admiral has misinformed us of the nature of these people. They mean no harm, so we will cause no harm."_

_"Alright, if you say so." _

_"We should be getting back now."_

She thought she had heard someone gasp. "I should have been tipped off by his loud fake snoring." She scolded herself for letting down her guard so easily. She brought her free hand to her face. A spark flashed quickly and a tiny ember turned into a small fireball in Kereth's palm. "I'm going to have to be more careful." She whispered as she gazed into the flickering form.

**How did ya like that? Yes Kereth is a fire bender! But calm down fire nation haters, you don't know her origin yet so please don't jump to any mean conclusions. And if you didn't notice, Feathra was asleep the entire time. Her only acting scene was a flashback! Poor girl! (Cries into miniature hanky) Ah well, she'll get to do her thing on the stage in a while. But for now, this was just one of those annoying things you call "Filler episodes" I will immediately get started on the next chapa. I just thought that this chapter should end on this "Ah! She's a fire bender!" realization note. Peace out hippies! AHHHHH! (Chibi author hides behind her ridiculously large swirly glasses.) No! I didn't mean it! Stop throwing your peace signs at me! I don't deserve this… (Begins to make waterfall chibi tears.)**


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